


Breakthrough

by goodcasting



Series: Bangkok Blokes [3]
Category: Johnny's Entertainment, SixTONES (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Prequel, Slow Burn, Some Plot, Taiga POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26157235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodcasting/pseuds/goodcasting
Summary: So, what happened after the kiss?Kouchi is still not getting any answers from Taiga, until an athletic event made Taiga realized something, but it also made Hokuto UNrealized something.Will this breakthrough end in tears?/Prequel to Bangkok Blokes
Relationships: Kyomoto Taiga/Matsumura Hokuto
Series: Bangkok Blokes [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893022
Kudos: 9





	Breakthrough

**Author's Note:**

> \- time-stamp : 3 years before the events in Bangkok Blokes  
> -Decided to write an athletic event after I saw that glorious, god-tier shop photo of Hokuto in a track-and-field uniform from one of Johnny's sports fest. Shame that I didn't get to save it.  
> -Tried my best to write ANGST on this one and the next, until I realized that I may not know angst at all. XD  
> 

_You and I are like that red wall. It’s a good idea in theory, but somehow, it doesn’t quite work…_

The seasons had changed since that kiss, the snow had melted and replaced with Cherry blossoms; however, Taiga wished that the memory of that kiss could melt like the snow and that the feelings that had awaken in him wouldn’t bloom like _sakura_. Taiga had been confused, worst, he couldn’t tell anyone about this, and the only person who could probably understand him is also the same person that he had been avoiding, Hokuto.

“Something really happened in Nami Island,” Kouchi said as they drank the famous Sakura drinks from Starbucks.

“I said, nothing happened, he walked-out the moment I sat on the bench,” Taiga insisted, all those years of being a Conan otaku had prepared him for this, the ability to say the same lie no matter how many times he had been interrogated.

Kouchi scoffed, “okay, Hokuto still avoids you, that hasn’t changed, but you have also started avoiding him, and that what has changed.”

“Well, since he has been avoiding me, I might as well avoid him, save us all the trouble from being awkward,”

“Okay,” Kouchi said with a sigh, Taiga knew that Kouchi was only pretending to have given-up interrogating him since he still refused to tell the truth, Taiga felt bad actually, Kouchi looked like he was really worried for him and Hokuto, and Taiga had been lying on his face.

“I’m glad though that you guys can remain that professional onscreen,” Kouchi said. Taiga sighed, Hokuto and him were practically BFFs in their TV show where they had lots of scenes together, most of which done with them being in close proximity, and those were the most trying times for Taiga.

“Hopefully, you can extend that professionalism even in the athletic meet,” Kouchi added and Taiga almost choked on his drinks. Kouchi immediately stood-up to fetch a glass of water, Taiga had forgotten about that annoying annual Athletic Meet that was held for the artists and talents from all shows airing under their TV network.

“Kouchi, will you break my leg, literally?” Taiga would rather spend months with a broken leg than months of humiliation just because he ran 50 meters in 11 seconds, not to mention that awful relay race where they always lost because he was too slow as a starter or even as a finisher.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I heard from the grapevine that the producers have the liberty to assign where their talents will participate, and our producer decided that you will just seat-in this year, act pretty and cute, cheer for us, and that’s it,”

“Really?!” Taiga exclaimed, he knew he should feel bad that his co-stars would do all the hard work, but really, he didn’t feel bad, he would just be in everyone’s way anyway.

“Yep, so I’m expecting that you’ll cheer for us the loudest,”

“Of course, I’ll even make you guys a banner!”

***

The Athletic Meet ran for almost 11 hours, Taiga found himself wearing a long _happi_ emblazoned with the names of Shintaro, Kouchi, Jesse, Juri, and Hokuto, and he also wore a _hachimaki_ with “victory” stitched on it. He really did take cheerleading seriously that he now had a new appreciation toward cheerleaders, screaming fangirls, and everyone who had to talk in maximum volume. The lower box seats of the arena were mostly occupied by different talents and artists with shows under the network, while the upper box seats were filled with their fans, tirelessly cheering for them, even though they gave less stellar results.

At last, one of the most-awaited games of the evening, the relay race, will begin and Taiga was asked to join the 3-panel commentators as a guest. Taiga wished his co-stars' good luck, he hugged and fist-bump all of them, even Hokuto, who looked glorious in his track-and-field uniform. Taiga found Hokuto’s long tanned legs too distracting in that shorts of his, not to mention that he had his hair sleek straight today, none of those permed or poodle hair he loved doing, and Taiga fought the urge to comb his fingers through his hair.

“Oh, look, the princess isn’t running this year, I mean, you guys wouldn’t win even if this blonde run, if he can run that is,”

Taiga immediately turned to the owner of the voice whom he loved to call, Sweaty Snake, he looked like a wet scrambled egg with a snakeskin tattoo that looked like it needed to be shed. Taiga hated this guy, hated his co-stars even, a bunch of people who grew bitter against them just because they took the Monday golden time from them, in Taiga’s defense, it was not their fault that their show raked the ratings.

“Kyomo, just back-off,” Shin said, his arm on Taiga's.

“I don’t mind if you guys lost, just make sure to win against them, even if you finished 4th place, just make sure that these guys take the 5th place,” Taiga said, his eyes not leaving Sweaty Snake.

Sweaty Snake scoffed, Taiga scoffed louder, they would probably be scoffing until a PA fetch Taiga so he could join the panel of commentators while his co-stars finished their warm-up.

Taiga had forgotten all about Sweaty Snake the moment he started chatting with the 3-panel commentators, one is a sportscaster, the other is comedian, and the third one is a female idol, it might be an unlikely combination but it worked, and Taiga found himself laughing from their antics and exchanging wisecracks.

There are 5 teams competing for the relay race, Taiga’s team had taken the innermost lane with Jesse as their starting runner, followed by Kouchi, Juri, Shintaro, and Hokuto as the last one. The moment they heard the gunshot, Taiga found himself being an incoherent mess as he cheered for his beloved co-stars that he didn’t notice when the sportscaster turned-off his mic so they could do their unbiased reporting of the events. Jesse was fast, but he still finished third before he passed the baton to Kouchi, then to Juri, and then to Shintaro whose neck veins might pop while he gritted his teeth as he runs to the fullest. He managed to give their team quite a wide berth before passing the baton to Hokuto.

Taiga clasped his hands the moment Hokuto got the baton and started his run, Taiga looked at the standings, Hokuto managed to start first and 5 seconds earlier than the next fastest relay runner, who happened to be Sweaty Snake, that Taiga found himself chanting, “please win, please win, please win,”, as Hokuto ran, but luck may not be on their side, because Hokuto might have stepped on something and fell, he fell and rolled a few yards, his long legs splayed on the next lane, and Taiga could only shout, “fuck”, when he saw how Sweaty Snake stepped on Hokuto’s right lower leg. Hokuto still managed to stand-up and ran while limping as he finished the race in 4th place.

Taiga immediately removed his mic piece and ran, his co-stars crowding around Hokuto while he was being attended by the medic, Taiga ran passed by them, he heard them call his name as he ran toward Sweaty Snake’s team, and planted his right fist on his annoying face.

***

Taiga found himself stretching like a cat when his grandmother woke him up, or as he liked to call her, _a-chan_. He looked for his phone to check the time then, he realized he didn’t have it since he left all his gadgets in Tokyo. Four months of suspension, that was his punishment for starting a fight during the athletic meet, and his dad decided to extend the punishment by grounding him in Osaka without all his gadgets and mangas. Taiga had been working since he was fifteen, this punishment felt like a much-needed break, and with his grandparents spoiling him to rotten, this suspension felt like a vacation. Although Taiga missed his friends, he wasn’t able to say goodbye to them because he was flown immediately when the verdict was handed down, and having no gadget felt like the time was moving too slow for Taiga, it had only been a week yet it felt like months.

“A-chan, is it lunch al-?” Taiga stopped when he saw Hokuto in the living room playing with their cat, he immediately looked over his right leg, but he was wearing jeans so Taiga couldn’t see underneath.

“No fractured bones, the elastic bandage will be removed next week,” Hokuto said, sensing from where Taiga’s eyes were looking.

“H-how did you know I was here?”

Hokuto shrugged his shoulders, “just a hunch, we’ve been here before, back in high school with Juri, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember. Do the rest of the guys know?”

“Yes,” Hokuto pulled a knapsack behind him, “Conan mangas and some DVDs for you to kill time while you’re here, Juri also lent you his iPad mini,”

“Wow, thank you,” Taiga said and reach for the knapsack, he felt warm and fuzzy for having friends who knew him well.

“C-can we talk, K-kyomoto? I-I have something I want to say,”

“S-sure, let’s go up to my room,”

Taiga had no idea what to feel upon seeing Hokuto, when Taiga was asked by the disciplinary committee on why he punched Sweaty Snake, he simply answered that he found his face annoying, never did he used Hokuto being stepped on as an excuse for his anger that day. Although it might have helped him a bit, probably lighten his suspension if he used that side of his story, but Taiga didn’t want to justify that for losing his cool, or rather, he was scared of digging deeper why he did something so uncharacteristic of him.

“If you are here to thank me for punching Sweaty Snake, no need for that, I would have done the same for Jesse, Kouchi, Shintaro, or Juri, because we all know that was not an accident,” Taiga said as they sat on the floor.

Hokuto simply smiled and Taiga could tell that he also had lots going on his mind.

“I won’t thank you then, but that event made me realized something,” Hokuto said.

“What did you realize?”

“That these are the people that I want to protect,” Hokuto said, his eyes starting to tear-up, “when you, Shintaro, Kouchi started throwing punches, then Jesse and Juri run over to stop the fight, I realized that, _ahhh_ , these are my precious friends, I love them, and I felt wrong, so wrong to have developed that feelings for you,”

“Hoku-”

“No, please, don’t interrupt me, this is my speech and I need to say this before I changed my mind,”

  
Taiga nodded.

“Please forget that I like you, forget that I kissed you, I selfishly let myself fall, selfishly did all that without even thinking how this might ruin our friendship. We have less than four months before you returned to the set, and I promise, I promise you, Kyomoto, I will have my feelings sort out in those four months, and I promise you, once you returned to the set, everything will be back to normal, just like how it used to be,” Hokuto ended his speech with a smile before a single tear fell from his eye, and Taiga could only smile back, even though he knew that there was nothing to smile about.

***

As sakura petals started falling, the ground still wet from the first spring rain, Taiga found himself strumming his guitar in a lonely sidewalk, away from the neon lights of Dotonbori, far from the busy station of Umeda, just him and some salarymen in nearby pubs, numbing their pain with alcohol, and no one paid attention to the guy with bucket-hat, wide-rimmed glasses, and an open guitar case in front of him as he sings a song,

“ _Well you only need the light when it’s burning low,_

_Only miss the sun when it starts to snow,_

_Only know you love her when you let her go,_

_Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low,_

_Only hate the road when you’re missing home,_

_Only know you love her when you let her go,_

_And you let her go,”_

**Author's Note:**

> -All italicized quotes are from Sex and the City  
> -The song at the end is Passenger's "Let Her Go"  
> -I hope you enjoyed this!  
> -Thank you for reading!


End file.
